Entrance of the Best
A beautiful light-red haired young woman snored her head off in bed, gripping into a small cushion, snoring as usual. Her face appeared as if she was wearing something resembling a smile as drool slowly trailed down her slowly open lip. This person felt as if she was having both the best and worst dream; it was actually quite good in the beginning- her wedding with the girl she was madly in love with It was good until then, but after that, her heart began to thump fast. Anyone would if they had the same dream, though. The last scene… "Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng..." The sound of her snoring only increased in pitch; it was ear-grating. People were complaining, and she was at the center of it all. The aforementioned girl she was madly in love with was sleeping next to her in this bed. Emphasis on 'was', as the moment the girl's snores reached their height, she sat bolt-upright, glancing around like there was a reason to panic. "Werzacanun?" She mumbled incoherently, before looking down at the girl she loved so much. "Marin...." She grumbled. She couldn't help but feel slightly irritated that she had been woken up by her girlfriend's snores of all things and reached over to the girl's face, pinching her nose hard. Marin began breathing fast as she jerked up, as if yanked by a puppeteer's string in a cruel little play, wiping the sweat on his forehead with her hand, which astonished her from the sheer amount of sweat there was; all while she clenched her nose as she backed up slightly, now thoroughly embarrassed. "Ehhhh! Mina, what are you doing?" She paused. "You just ruined the greatest dream...I had a pet dinosaur and we looked after him every day and his name was Asper-kun." "...." Mina was still not entirely awake, so processing Marin's antics was difficult. It took her a moment before the entirety of what Marin said sunk in, and she chuckled. "I know I tried a new recipe last night, but I don't think I slipped any drugs in the food. You can be so ridiculous." She stood up, pulling on a robe as stretched to get herself ready for the day. "Where's Kisara? She's usually awake before any of us." Clang! The sound of breaking metal. In the hand of the graceful, rose-haired young woman, the spoon crumbled from its core as if it had been exposed to a hundred years of aging. "...Dammit, I messed up already." The young woman pouted. Miss Meryll, the maid standing at her side, glared fiercely at her, mouthing off, "This is the third spoon you destroyed today, Lady Kisara. A single one of these silver spoons, crafted by the finest artisans, is worth a month's living for anyone else. It's kind of disgusting, your carelessness." Kisara pouted. "I'm sorry, Meryll, but it happens all the time so, I'm gonna ask you that you please pretend you never saw it." The young woman was confused. "Yes, this happens all the time, Lady Kisara. Three times in a day…no, that is incorrect. Three times per meal, ten times in a day. In a single day, you waste ten months' worth of a commoner’s living expenses! Of course, it is not just spoons, correct?" Meryll was...pissed. Kisara growled at her, "'Shaddup. I don't have time for this, got it?" She stood up and rushed to Marin's room, where she looked at the two lovebirds with an expression that basically said 'what did I miss'. Marin acted as if nothing had happened; seeing that Kisara barging in like this was perfectly normal. "Oh, hello there. Want to see my bonzai tree again, Kisara? It's growing rather spendidly for one." "Marin, that isn't something you say to someone whose barged into our bedroom." Mina was now putting on her normal outfit. "Not that it matters I suppose. So, what's on the schedule for today?" Marin quickly reached over to her side, grabbing her rulebook while exerting minute telekinetic force, before grasping it and flipping to today's schedule. "Okay. The Captain Promotion Test is gonna start in an hour, remember?" Even her own words made her freeze up—the test was something she'd been looking forward to for a while now, though due to her age and general inexperience, she was unable to participate because she was 'just a kid'. Kisara's ahoge sprung up in a sign of alertness. "That's right! We should get goin-" she rested her left hand on the doorknob, causing it to shatter as if it had been exposed to the harshest of environments. This was a curse. From Kisara's point of view, it is indeed nothing out of the ordinary. This young woman was born with a curse, and lived with it to this age. So, breaking a spoon or two while eating was also very common. But of course, to the maid Meryll, that wouldn't do. Mina looked at the door knob, eyes wide with shock. This wasn't the first time she'd seen the curse in action, but it always made her nervous to be around this girl. "Um...Kisara, does that happen to people you touch?" Kisara was fairly blunt in her response. "Depends if I want to actively harm them or not. If not, then it won't harm a thing. Though your clothes may be a little torn up. If I do...let's just say it won't be pretty." She had a slight sadistic smirk upon her face that was easy to ignore while saying this. Marin pouted at this. "Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~~!! Kisara, that's scaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaary!" she held onto Mintaka's arm in slight fright immediately as she let her feelings loose. She suddenly straightened up; a look of worry dawned on her. "...R-Right! We'll be late...!" Quickly, Marin packed up her things and began to run downstairs, half dressed. Waltzing down to the area in which the exam would take place, Marin thought to herself, "I can't compete...I mean, apparantly, I'm too 'young'.." Instead, Marin decided to focus on the match and congratulate the winner. Plonking herself down upon a seat, the young woman witnessed both of her friends begin to face each other. She looked up at an elderly woman sitting in the rightmost throne which overlooked this match. As if acknowledging her, she glanced back. She was a thoroughly aged woman, wearing martial arts clothes and a purple cap bearing a manji with the characters for 'master', which reflected ancient Buddhist tradition. She had shoulder-length pinkish gray hair and brown eyes. "Today you will be examined for the Crest of the Wings. Not one but two of the brightest prodigies chosen stand here as candidates... but this is neither a competition nor a battle for supremacy-- not a test of wills, but a test of heart. Both of you may prevail, or neither. But I am sure our guest, Arch Warrior Juanita Rodriguez... did not travel all this way to see our youngest prospects in years fall short of the Crest. I trust you are ready." This woman was Mizuzu Yumizuka, their parental substitute and a respected master in her own right. "Mintaka Lestrange, Kisara Daikoku...let the examination begin!" Mizuzu proudly declared; with the ringing of the bell, a fight began, with Marin cheering for Mintaka. Kisara had an...uncanny aura about her. Her face showed only a subtle hint of bloodlust; though she did appear to look rather placid about it. "Let's start it off. Eishōrai!" Kisara thrust her hand into the air, gathering magical power upon her pointer finger, before pirouetting, enabling that energy to scatter around her graceful figure- instantly, she felt as if her strength, speed, defense, and endurance had doubled. Her small little smirk contorted into a slight grin, as she withdrew a staff composed of solid gold that was twice as long as she was from a dimensional pocket. "Go!" With this subdued cry of war, Kisara shot forward like a bullet, the end of her staff pointing towards Mina's gut viciously. The speed that she was moving at certainly belied her status of 'squishy wizard'- hell, you could say that Kisara was just as deadly in close combat as she was in long-range spellcasting. Stepping into the air elegantly, Kisara swung her staff suddenly in a long arch, attempting to blow Mina away. "Tch! She doesn't pull punches. Like a freight train, right from the start!" Mina immediately drew a silver tube from her sleeve, and anyone here aware of the Quincy arts (basically her master, Marin, and Kisara) knew this was a Gintō tube. "Tilt the goblet to the west - Wolke!" Her hands glew bright blew with energy as she created a large explosion in front of her. Not to attack, but as a diversion, which allowed her to gain some distance and then she leaped into the air. "Sorry Kisara, but I'm not getting close to you!" She drew another silver tube, and crushed it, before moving both hands across her chest in a cross motion. "Feel the wrath of battle and accept this sacred chalice - Heizen!" Through this spell, a large block of unknown material was created and immediately flung through the smokescreen at Kisara. This spell was lethal, and Mina knew it. Fighting with the intent to kill was expected of both of them. Kisara smirked as a wave of her staff-imbued with demon energy dispelled the smoke effortlessly. "Hah! You really don't know me, do you?" She spun her staff around her wrist before declaring, "Mabaku!" Focusing demon energy into the tip of her staff, Kisara sliced the Heizen spell while releasing the demon energy coated upon her staff with perfect timing, accurately targeting the tiny buildup of energy in the dead center of the middle of the spell, causing a chain reaction where the energy dispersed in an instant, essentially destroying the block. Kisara then spun her staff around her wrists once more, before slamming it into the ground, causing a crack of pure demonic energy to erupt from the epiccenter of where it landed, which rose up brilliantly and converged into a single sphere of crimson light. She added in her own White Magic, and then prodded it fiercely with her staff. "Ziodyne!" She released the sphere as a crimson wave of demonic energy that rushed towards Mina remorselessly, attempting to catch her in the air. Naturally, this wasn't all she'd do, and so, she teleported into the air to set up her next move. Mina had pretty much one though in her head. 'Move out of the way. ' And the quickest way she saw to dodge this sphere was to make a nosedive. Pulling reishi under her feet, she rocketed down towards the ground, barely keeping herself safe from that attack, as she could feel the heat graze her body as it passed her buy. This maneuver also put off Kisara's follow-up, who was now in the air with positions reversed. "I don't have to know you well to win a battle, Kisara." She manifested her Quincy spirit weapon, a crossbow, and gathered reishi from the area to load it, before pulling the trigger and releasing a very fast moving Heilig Pfeil. "Reflect!" While this wasn't the name of the spell, mere seconds before the blast of reishi landed, Kisara expelled her magical energy and erected it in the form of geometric shapes that connected to form the overall shape of tessellating hexagons. Spinning around at high speeds, these hexagons gathered magical energy by drawing it from Kisara and the surroundings for a split second, before quickly counterattacking by causing the Heilig Pfeil to be, well, returned to sender. Spinning around in mid-air, Kisara rocketed downwards using magic as propulsion to meet Mina on the ground. Suddenly, Kisara pulled an unexpected move- she threw her staff forward like a javelin, straight at Mina's head. Of course, this was so blatantly telegraphed; so Kisara used her telekinetic bond with the staff to warp it around Mina's body instantly and try to crack a few of her ribs, while she herself rushed forward and attempted to hammer her with a powerful bicycle kick. Mina made a swift duck, and the staff itself flew over her head and somewhere into the distance. However, her eyes widened as she saw this had given Kisara a chance to close the distance between them and her blow was about to connect. With no way out, Mina raised her arms in front of her in an X-formation as a block, tightening her fists as if to brace herself. Kisara's blow came fast and hard; managing to knock Mina back slightly- though her pose remained stagnant, she was thrown back several meters from the force of the blow. Not waiting for Mina to prepare her next attack, Kisara teleported back once more and prepared one more spell. "Blizz-" However, before Kisara could say anything else, Mina said merely one word from the ground where she had been knocked. "Gritz!" With this, a man-sized pentagonal Quincy cross erupted from the ground and wrapped Kisara, trapping her within as Mina stood up, grinning. "It's a good thing you got as close as you did. That enabled me to crush a silver tube at the moment your kick hit me, splashing you with the liquid inside. Now you're mine." What Mina had done was unique - a delayed reaction spell. She moved forward quickly using the Quincy art of high speed movement, Hirenkyaku, and leaped quickly over the prison she had created, forming her bow and releasing multiple Heilig Pfeil with enough speed and power to pierce even this. These arrows weren't intended to kill, merely to pierce the limbs of Kisara and pin her to the ground. Her master would no doubt consider that a victory. Kisara rolled her eyes, though she wasn't too happy. She wouldn't admit defeat, but she was outfoxed by this Quincy woman. It managed to actually scar her pride significantly, though she bottled up her dissapointment. "...Tch. Good move, Mina. I must applaud you for that one." Mizuzu applauded the match, shouting, " We have deliberated and reached a decision. Mintaka, Kisara, you both performed commendably. However, only Mintaka has shown the Crest of Wings." Mizuzu turned to Kisara. "Kisara, you failed to keep your impulses sufficiently in check. But, there is always next time. That is all. Mintaka Lestrange, as our newest Grand Master, you are entitled to certain knowledge. Please wait here for further instruction." Marin was squealing like a fangirl; ironic considering her profession. "Whoo-hoo Mina! You did it!" "I did!" Mina fell on her ass for a moment, tired, but grinning like an idiot. "I did it, Marin!" Happy as she was, she was also aching. And she didn't think the title "Grand Master" would suit her well. Wasn't it more a ploy for attention than anything else? ---- Having run off after her defeat, Kisara sat upon the steps of the complex, pondering her loss, rightfully peeved about it all. "...So, I can't control my impulses? So what does that matter? I know I'm strong enough to hold it back..." A voice, as if reading her mind, called out to her. "Correct. You are indeed strong." Kisara swiftly turned around—it was Juanita Rodriguez who called for her. She was a beautiful young-looking woman (though she was probably older), with long, flowing snow-white hair and hazel eyes, wearing a moderate ensemble. "Trust your impulses. That is...your brain just leading you the right way." Kisara jerked back. "....Lady Juanita..." "And yet...how frustrating that Mizuzu refutes the power of your primal instincts. Why, you could train with her forever and still... you'd never be a Master in her eyes." Juanita's words were somewhat seductive to Kisara's eager ears. "But...why? Help me understand, Lady Juanita. What is it that I have failed to learn?" Kisara seemed troubled. Juanita pulled a genuine, yet tricky-to-trust smile. "At the end of the day, we're all animals. Trust your instincts, that pure animalistic rage. Dig into your past, and accept what you formerly were; that is the only way to become perfect." Kisara seemed a bit more confident now. "Yes. Thank you, Lady Juanita." ---- Mizuzu turned to Mina. "…A few moments ago, I received a call from the Northern Supreme Kai. As you know, she keeps a close eye on the tides of this world. Her counsel serves as signposts on the road we must walk. All the more reason, then, for concern—she tells me, the seals that hold in the true evils of the world are in danger. Not only from supernatural threats, as you may assume…But from a new threat, one that feeds on love. Twisted love that has taken upon eldritch form." "As the new Grand Master, you are tasked with striking down any who would upset the balance of this world; the evildoers. These new beings are no exception. I tried to pass this news on to Lady Juanita, but my repeated attempts to reach her have failed. I doubt there is any connection, and yet... This all troubles me. So here we are. I need you to get this situation under control. Eliminate the new threats, and find Lady Juanita. The raw animal in your souls looms closer than usual, but your strong will is able to protect you. Lastly, remember that order must be kept. You cannot tell anyone about this mission. Now go, and fulfill your duty." Without hesitation, Marin nodded, responding in a monotone voice, "Affirmative." as if she were part of the bargain. Mizuzu sensed a returning Kisara, informing her, "Kisara. Consider this an opportunity. A second chance for you to change my mind. You must know, I care for you like my own daughter. If I could have my way, I would name you Master in a second. But, how can I, when you are so obsessed with power? Kisara, you mustn't be afraid of losing. Fear leads to obsession with power, and obsession beckons corruption." Kisara wasn't too crash-hot on listening to Mizuzu right about now. Her tone was sincere yet somewhat irked. "Thank you, Master. I swear, I won't fail you again." With that, Kisara just walked past her, as if she didn't matter anymore. Mina watched her fellow student walk off, her eyes narrowing. Something was off about her. Even in battle, she was far more brutal than say, herself or Marin would be. Her Master's teachings weren't suited for brutality. She frowned. Perhaps she was thinking too much into it? Mina turned to look at Mizuzu. "Alright Master. I understand. Besides, what you want from me isn't too much different from a Quincies duties that Father was so eager to grind into my head." She seemed...bitter about that last part. While the duo of Mina and Marin began to leave, Mizuzu pulled Marin back for a moment. "Before you depart, I have one other... Well, call it a request, of the utmost priority." Marin's interest was piqued now. "Hm? "I told Kisara this could be a second chance to show the Crest of the Wings...and I meant it. However, that flicker of rage she displayed during the examination--I can sense it runs very deep. If she were to-- If those powers were to prove too much for her to handle, I want you to bring her back to me at once. It's for her own good. I could not bear to lose any of you to that darkness." Marin nodded. "Of course. I would never let that happen. I promise you I will bring Kisara back. Only this time, you'll see she has what it takes to be a Grand Master." She turned to leave, but stopped in her tracks, muttering under her breath, "She's not as weak as you think." FIN Category:Claw and Fang Tales Category:Perchan Category:AnimeQueen9112